A stroke can be a devastating experience, leaving the patient with serious physical impairments and beset by concerns for the future. Today, that future is much brighter, as stroke rehabilitation has made enormous strides. Now, Jintronix offers a significant advance to help stroke patients restore their physical functions: an affordable motion-capture system for physical rehabilitation that uses Microsoft Kinect for Windows.

The folks at Montreal- and Seattle-based Jintronix are tackling three major issues related to rehabilitation. First, and most importantly, they are working to improve patients’ compliance with their rehabilitation regimen, since up to 65% of patients fail to adhere fully—or at all—with their programs.[1] In addition, they are addressing the lack of accessibility and the high cost associated with rehabilitation. If you have just had a stroke, even getting to the clinic is a challenge, and the cost of hiring a private physical therapist to come to your home is too high for most people.

Consider Jane, a 57-year-old patient. After experiencing a stroke eight months ago, she now has difficulty moving the entire right side of her body. Like most stroke victims, Jane faces one to three weekly therapy sessions for up to two years. Unable to drive, she depends on her daughter to get her to these sessions; unable to work, she worries about the $100 fee per visit, as she has exhausted her insurance coverage. If that weren’t enough, Jane also must exercise for hours daily just to maintain her mobility. Unfortunately, these exercises are very repetitive, and Jane finds it difficult to motivate herself to do them.

Jintronix tackles all of these issues by providing patients with fun, “gamified” exercises that accelerate recovery and increase adherence. In addition, Jintronix gives patients immediate feedback, which ensures that they perform their movements correctly. This is critical when the patient is exercising at home

Motion capture lies at the heart of Jintronix. The first-generation Kinect for Windows camera can track 20 points on the body with no need for the patient to wear physical sensors, enabling Jintronix to track the patient’s position in three-dimensional space at 30 frames per second. Behind the scenes, Jintronix uses the data captured by the sensor to track such metrics as the speed and fluidity of patients’ movement. It also records patients’ compensation patterns, such as leaning the trunk forward to reach an object instead of extending the arm normally.

Jintronix then uses this data to place patients in an interactive game environment that’s built around rehabilitation exercises. For example, in the game Fish Frenzy, the patient's hand controls the movement of an on-screen fish, moving it to capture food objects that are placed around the screen in a specific therapeutic pattern, like a rectangle or a figure eight.

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Jintronix is working to remove all the major barriers to physical rehabilitation by making a system that is fun, simple to use, and affordable. Jintronix demonstrates the potential of natural user interfaces (NUI) to make technology simpler and more effective—and the ability of Kinect for Windows to help high tech meet essential human needs.

Now, as Dr. Bill Crounse, senior director of Worldwide Health at Microsoft reports in his blog, Jintronix has received 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its rehab system. This marks an important milestone for Jintronix. "We're very excited about receiving FDA clearance, which paves the way for Jintronix to help in the rehabilitation of countless stroke victims," said CEO Shawn Errunza.